Pure 10-Year Old Fun

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2018)

Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favourite directors of all time, and for good reason. His films always feel so imaginative, his world building and designs so impressive. He knows how to build everything to create his own vision. Pacific Rim sounds like a stupid concept at first, and while the movie is dumb, it knows how seriously to take itself. Unlike the transformers movies which need to convince the audience that the movie is dark and gritty, this movie has fun, with vibrant colours and fun characters. These characters are not original or very unique but their fun tropes, like Star Wars characters. In fact, I am surprised so many dislike these characters but then love Star Wars. It's probably due to the development of these characters, but I think everyone is fleshed out as much as they need to be.
People consider this a modern Star Wars, and I would have to agree with it. It uses other sources and cliches mixed together to create its unique universe like Star Wars does. This universe doesn't sound so unique, I mean tecchnically theres just giant robots and kaijus now, but all the details Del Toro puts into the universe elevates this world.
Guillermo Del Toro of course knows how to deal with special effects, but I was anticipating ths movie due to budget, as Del Toro doesn't typically get a big blockbuster budget, even in the Hellboy movies. This movie looks beautiful, with a wide variety of locations. Again, this is so colourful compared to most blockbusters. This colour makes the film interesting to look at. The inside of the Jaegers, the different Kaijus and the look of the Shatterdome, Hong Kong and the rift are beautiful,
I haven't talked about the action, mostly because surpisingly there isn't a lot in the film, which is what I love. In fact, there are only 3 fights in the movie, the first one not really even counting as a fight, more as an introduction. The 2nd set piece, which I will not spoil to anyone, is by far the highlight of the film. One thing that sets this movie apart from others is the action itself. The Jaegers aren't fast Michael Bay robots, they are slow, and so are they Kaijus. This, combined with the water that is always in these action scenes as rain or waves, gives this feeling of impact by seeing the robots slowly smash water particles rather than zoom across the screen just to look cool. This feeling of scale is just awesome, established in each shot, always making sure the Jaegers feel huge.
Pacific Rim is a movie unlike so many blockbusters these days which try to give off this fake seriousness that the movie doesn't need. I wish more movies were like this, and more directors were as talented as Guillermo Del Toro.